Chapter 7: Linnaean Plant Names and their Types (part C)
Author
Jarvis, Charlie
Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, UK
text
2007
Linnaean Society of London in association with the Natural History Museum
London
Order out of Chaos. Linnaean Plant Types and their Types
370
473
book chapter
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.291971
978-0-9506207-7-0
291971
Cactus opuntia
Linnaeus
,
Species Plantarum
1
: 468. 1753
.
"Habitat in America, Peru, Virginia, nunc in Hispania, Lusitania." RCN: 3584.
Lectotype
(Heath in
Calyx
2: 74. 1992): [icon] "
Opuntia
vulgo herbariorum
" in Bauhin & Cherler, Hist. Pl. Univ. 1(1): 154. 1650.
Current name:
Opuntia ficus-indica
(L.) Mill.
(
Cactaceae
).
Note:
Authors including Hunt (in Milne-Redhead & Polhill,
Fl. Trop. E. Africa,
Cactaceae
: 3. 1968), Obermeyer (in Ross,
Fl. Southern Africa
22: 153. 1976) and Leuenberger (in
Willdenowia
16: 498. 1987) interpreted the name via the cited Bauhin & Cherler illustration but without explicitly treating it as the type. Benson (
Cacti U.S. Canada
: 923. 1982) wrongly designated 201.7 (S), material unannotated by Linnaeus and not original material for the name, as
lectotype
before Heath (in
Calyx
2: 74. 1992) formally made the Bauhin & Cherler figure the type. Leuenberger (in
Taxon
42: 419, f. 2. 1993), however, rejected
Heath's
choice in favour of a Burser collection (UPS) on the grounds that the figure conflicts with the diagnosis but, as a cited illustration, it cannot be dismissed in this way as it forms part of the protologue. Crook & Mottram (in
Bradleya
22: 73-74. 2004) provide a further review, reproducing images of the Burser material (f. 106d) and the cited Bauhin & Cherler type (f. 106c), while following
Leuenberger's
type choice.